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Monday, December 27, 2010

Birthday Week and Christmas Parts II and III

Last Saturday's Christmas with my mom's fam kicked off the start of my birthday week! On Monday, my coworker (aka Nugget's mom) took me to Red Robin for a birthday lunch. We passed on the singing and free dessert there and headed to Icing on the Cupcake for yummy treats! I got the pumpkin with cream cheese frosting shown below and she got the classic carrot cake cupcake:

I had a different birthday lunch every day. Tuesday I went with Lou to Chili's and then we walked over and got her measured for her bridesmaid dress (yay!). Wendesday I had lunch with GF at Cafe Roma since I was working downtown. Thursday I had "Christmas Curry" with a coworker. We went to the amazing Thai place near our work. Since we didn't have work on Friday, Thursday was casual day. I wore this hot little number with my jeans:

It has bells on it! So basically I wanted to tell everyone I would be there with bells on, because I really was. LOL! I also had to stop myself from asking people if they liked my ornaments. I am the HR Manager and all.

Since Heather (Nugget's mom) was gone on Thursday, I came into my office and there was a note on my desk cupboard door that said "open me" and inside was this:

She's too sweet!

I decided on Tuesday that I wanted to do an impromptu birthday celebration, but obviously no one was available on Thursday by Tuesday night, so JB and I went to dinner by ourselves. Afterwards we went out to the casino for some drinks and penny slots. First things first, we had to get our Players Club cards. LOL! Some of JB's friends were in town for the holidays so they met up with us, along with some other local friends. I was glad they could at least come and have a drink with me and witness the horrendous karaoke that was happening inside the bar area. Even Mr. and Mrs. Awesome came by on their way home from the Kings game to buy me a birthday drink!

Friday we lounged around all morning and then got ready to head to the bay area to see my aunts/uncles/cousins from my dad's side of the family. It was great to see everyone and talk about holidays past and our childhood. I sat next to my SIL and apparently the little cupcake likes hummus because she was doing all sorts of stuff in there. I got to feel her move a lot and was so excited!! I can't wait until she gets here! Two more months!

After dinner and story time with everyone, we headed to my Dad's house in Vacaville. My stepmom hosts Christmas Eve and this was the 30 year anniversary of the tradition! She put together an amazing scrapbook of pictures from when she first started doing this through last year along with quotes that people submitted to her. It was really special. We ate, drank, and were merry with all of the friends and family that were present. My dad had this ridiculous reindeer hat that had moving, lit-up antlers and sang "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer". Why did I not get a pic of that?

Every year I usually stick around until midnight so we can celebrate my birthday. Right after the clock struck 12:00am, everyone sang happy birthday to me and then my parents gave me my gifts. After I was done opening, my stepmom suggested shots, to which we all obliged. Except poor JB who was stuck being DD. Hey, it's MY birthday. I did feel kind of bad that we didn't get home until 2am, but we were having so much fun!

Saturday morning I awoke to JB smooching my face off. This is annoying, but cute and sweet at the same time. He brought me coffee in bed and said "Merry Christmas!" to which I responded, "It's my birthday." We chatted for a few minutes and then he said he had to go get his coffee so it didn't get cold. When he came back he had a little pink bag with this inside (sorry it's upside down):

It's a $10 gift certificate to Amazon.com so I can buy a new book for my Kindle. There were a lot of things I wanted this year, but we are financially handicapped right now. I really wasn't expecting anything, so I thought it was sweet that he still wanted to give me something for my birthday even though he couldn't get me what he really wanted to. The best part was the bag he used was one of the ones I have stored in the hall closet! I save gift bags and tissue paper for re-use. Smart, no? I laughed really hard at the whole thing and thought it was pretty awesome.

We headed off to spend the afternoon with my step-dad's family and then had dinner with JB's bro and parents that night. I gave JB and Rich their gifts together since they were related. Pic of JB's gift below:

And I got one for me :)

If you remember this post about The Pigeons, this might make sense to you. If not, you should go read it now. The same day I posted that blog, I had a friend send me the link to a bunch of pigeon related shirts on CafePress.com. I immediately emailed all of the wives and suggested the gift idea. Everyone loved the thought of getting shirts for the guys and some of us decided to get shirts for ourselves and for their children as well. A few of the guys have the same shirt, but there are several others thrown in the mix too. Here are some of the sayings on the shirts:

"I Speak Pigeon""I'm the crazy pigeon man your momma warned you about""Don't mess with the pigeons""Evil" with a pic of a pigeonA pigeon with a fedora hatA pigeon DJ"When I grow up I want to be a pigeon" kids"Pigeon Hugger" kids/wives

Those are the only ones I can remember right now. From what I have heard, the guys loved them. Maybe they will even wear them for next year's Christmas card. Who knows? Here is a pic of one of the other guys and his kids with their shirts (don't worry, I asked permission first):

It was a wonderful Christmas season. I really tried to stay in the moment and appreciate the time I got to spend with my family and friends. I am so grateful for everything and everyone we have in our lives.

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About Me

I'm just a girl...
who has finally finished her masters, paid off her debt, and become a homeowner. I'm not yet a mother (let's not get ahead of ourselves), but am a darn good wife, friend, sister and daughter, if I do say so myself. Oh, and I'm kind of a big deal :)